Summer Solstice

As we all know, “Winter is coming.”

Literally true today. It’s the summer solstice, the longest day and shortest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s also the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Southern Hemisphere, so I guess for them, “Summer is coming.”

Starting today, the days get shorter and the nights get longer (in the Northern Hemisphere, opposite in the Southern) until we get to the winter solstice around December 21st.

To most of us in this era, all of this means nothing but a minor note on the calendar. Many, if not most, would consider it nothing more than useless crap that we had to learn for a second or third grade test. More daylight, warmer temperatures, more barbeque, later dog walks, earlier jogs, and so on. Blah, blah, blah.

But we live with ancient, historical side effects of the sun’s movements and the changing of the seasons, even if those effects are are subtle. For example, why is Christmas in late December? Hint: it’s not because that’s when Jesus Christ was born.

The description in the Bible of shepherds in their fields means it wasn’t December. References to lambs and other young farm animals would make it likely to be in early to the middle of spring. (This is hardly a revelation or news.)

Being an early Christian was not good for your life expectancy. But they wanted (needed?) a holiday to celebrate. It was time to get stealthy.

Going back to the days of cave dwellers, early hunter-gatherers, and the dawn of civilization, people knew how the sun moved and how the seasons varied with them. Tribes that didn’t know that or learn that — died. When animals were migrating, when to plant, when the rains came, when to harvest — all were tied to the seasons and the sun.

For all human cultures, the time around the winter solstice was sacred. It was when it was the darkest, when the worst of the winter was to be faced, but also when the days started to lengthen and there was again hope for spring’s arrival.

Building on the pagan traditions going back thousands of years, the Romans celebrated the solstice. The early Christians found survival in celebrating at the same time, camaflouged by all of the pagan partying going on all around them. “When in Rome…”

In many cultures the summer solstice was known as “mid-summer” or Litha. It was also a time of celebration as the days were long and warm. For hunting tribes, this was often when game was most available. For gatherers, this was when wild fruits, nuts, and vegetables would begin to ripen and be ready to pick.

Mid-summer was a time to celebrate life, fertility, and bounty. Where the winter solstice had wolves howling at the edge of the town, the summer solstice was celebrated with fireflies and faeries.

So celebrate the summer solstice this weekend, perhaps with a quiet evening outside with the fireflies.

And an adult beverage. The pagans would want you to.